The number of Anglophone Cameroonians seeking asylum in Nigeria has doubled since mid-January. Without urgent international support, UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, warns that their struggle for survival will be increasingly desperate.

Anglophone Cameroonians began fleeing violence in October 2017 and continue to pour into Nigeria’s Cross River, Taraba, Benue and Akwa-Ibom states. In total, over 20,000 refugees have been registered in the area. Women and children account for four-fifths of the population.

A recent assessment by humanitarian groups shows how grim the situation has become. Ninety-five per cent of the asylum seekers have no more than three days of food. Most families are down to one meal per day. The coping strategies people are using are themselves risky, and range from borrowing money to cutting food portions or saving food only for children.

Most asylum seekers say they are having to drink water from streams, ponds and other unsafe sources, because of inadequate or dysfunctional drinking water facilities. Essential relief items, such as clothing, blankets and plastic sheeting, are available to fewer than 25 per cent of them.

Only five in every 100 Cameroonians have proper or independent shelter. The rest have little or no privacy, squatting in rooms hosting on average 10 to 15 people. Protection from the cold is lacking, increasing health concerns due to the imminent start of the rainy season.

Malaria is reportedly already on the increase. Children commonly exhibit rapid breathing and coughing. Many participants at the assessment were suffering from fear and anxiety, poor sleep and flashbacks. In all, about 20 to 30 per cent of the asylum seekers have some kind of vulnerability, such as a physical disability.

Three quarters of the Cameroonian children who recently fled to Nigeria currently cannot access school, because their families cannot afford to pay for books and uniforms. Adults are also becoming more frustrated as they struggle to make ends meet.

A political solution to the situation in Cameroon is urgently needed, so that the Cameroonians can safely and voluntarily return home. Until then, UNHCR and its partners will continue their efforts to provide assistance and support to this population as long as we are able.

Our office has worked on a contingency plan of US$18 million to help cover their needs. However, so far no funds have been received, leading to immense challenges and gaps in the response.

Earlier this month, the authorities in Nigeria allocated land to UNHCR which should allow for shelters to be established to ensure the safety, security and self-reliance of refugees. UNHCR acknowledges the authorities’ commitment to assist in moving the refugees at least 50 kilometres away from the border, in line with humanitarian principles.

We also remain concerned about reports of further arrests of Cameroonian nationals in Nigeria, including at least one asylum seeker at the beginning of March. UNHCR urges the Nigerian authorities to refrain from the forcible return of individuals who may have fled persecution in their country of origin, and to respect the principle of non-refoulement or no forced returns.

Source: UNHCR.Org

Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy was being held in police custody on Tuesday for questioning by magistrates looking into allegations of Libyan funding for his 2007 election campaign, an official in the French judiciary said.

A lawyer for Sarkozy could not be reached immediately for comment.

France opened a judicial inquiry in 2013 into allegations that Sarkozy’s successful 2007 election bid benefited from illicit funds from late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.

A former minister and close ally of Sarkozy, Brice Hortefeux, was also being questioned by police on Tuesday morning in relation to the Libya investigation, another source close to the probe said.

Sarkozy, who served as president from 2007 to 2012, has always denied receiving any illicit campaign funding and has dismissed the Libyan allegations as “grotesque”.

In January a French businessman suspected by investigators of funneling money from Gaddafi to finance Sarkozy’s campaign was arrested in Britain and granted bail after he appeared in a London court.

Sarkozy has already been ordered to stand trial in a separate matter concerning financing of his failed re-election campaign in 2012, when he was defeated by Francois Hollande.

REUTERS

Hundreds of French Cameroun troops will be forced to leave the army or sent on early retirement soon because the Biya regime has run out of money to pay salaries and to feed them including paying water and electricity bills at several military bases in the Far North region and in Southern Cameroons.

Cameroon Intelligence Report was reliably informed that soldiers who are currently deployed to Southern Cameroons have been told not to speak to the media about the prevailing situation. The ministry of defense has been hit by numerous corruption scandals and financial crisis as the Francophone dominated regime tries to rein in expenditure to cope with the armed struggles in the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, the Nigerian Islamic sect, Boko Haram in the Far North and militants from the Central African Republic in the East region . It has also led to the 85 year old President Biya traveling to China to seek help.

President Biya has not stopped hiring expensive presidential jets for his lavish trips abroad but the ministry of defense has been ordered to liaise with the ministry of commerce begging hotels and business centers to encourage Cameroonians to donate in support of the military. Biya who is still embarking on unnecessary foreign trips and with huge delegations approved the measure as painted on the photo attached to this report.

Cameroon government debt levels under the ruling CPDM crime syndicate have been soaring in recent years, leading to even French investor warnings about the economic outlook of the Sub Saharan African country.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Lawmakers on the tiny French overseas territory of New Caledonia voted on Monday to hold an independence referendum on November 4, the culmination of decades of campaigning by separatists to break from their old colonial master.

Better known for its stunning lagoons, pristine Pacific beaches and diverse wildlife, New Caledonia has seen years of bitter political feuding between independence advocates and those who are determined to remain part of France.

Unrest shook the islands in the mid-1980s with as many as seventy people thought to have been killed.

An agreement was signed between France and New Caledonia in 1998 that promised greater autonomy for the archipelago and its indigenous Melanesian Kanak population.

Under the terms of that deal an independence referendum needed to be held by the end of 2018.

On Monday, the island’s legislature finally approved a referendum date — Sunday, November 4 — at a public meeting in the capital Noumea, according to an AFP journalist present, with 38 votes in favor and 14 opposed.

New Caledonia currently holds a unique position as an overseas possession that formulates its own tax, labor laws and trade policy but not defense or foreign policy.

But many of the archipelago’s inhabitants, particularly within the indigenous Kanak community, want full independence.

The territory boasts a quarter of the world’s known resources of nickel, a core component in the manufacture of stainless steel, rechargeable batteries and coins.

But wealth is not evenly spread and backers of independence want major economic reform.

(Source: AFP)